The Short ConstitutionWade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
History
The Short Constitution
Wade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
United States. Constitution
We must impress upon them the great truth, that there is not now, and
never has been, a system of government which can abolish sorrow, or
sickness, or stay the hand of death. That no government can help men who
will not help themselves; that there is no way in which any government can
bring riches to the indolent, nor bread to those who will not toil. We
must combat the false philosophy which assumes that all men are equal in
all things, because men are not equal, except as under the Constitution
they are equal before the law. No system of legislation and no method of
government can equalize the strong with the weak, the wise with the
simple, the good with the bad. While God gives to some men wisdom and
shrewdness which others do not possess, while some are broad shouldered,
with muscles of steel, and others are frail, and tremble as they walk,
there will always be riches, there will always be poverty, and any scheme
for equalizing the possessions of men is but an idle dream which never can
be realized until men are made over into beings without passion or pride
or ambition or selfishness. Do not let them feel that its provisions are
intended to protect only the rich and powerful. If the right of a railway
corporation to certain lands is sustained under some constitutional
provision, do not allow the people to assume that this provision exists
only for corporations, but impress upon them that the same constitutional
provision which protects the railway company in its rights, may be invoked
in defense of the little homestead out upon the prairies.
If some desperado should be acquitted because he invoked the
constitutional requirement that he upon his trial must be confronted by
the witnesses against him, remind those who criticise that this same
provision is made for their sons who may to-morrow be unjustly charged
with a crime; impress upon them that it is impossible to have one law for
the guilty, and another for the innocent; and that under our Constitution,
every man is presumed to be innocent until proven to be guilty.
Then impress upon the people something of the wonderful growth of the
Nation, the development of the Nation, and the progress of the Nation—all
under the wise protection of the Constitution. To those who may be
discouraged in the battle of life, and who may attribute their failure to
the injustice of social conditions, point out what other men have done
under the same conditions, with no better opportunity, and ask them to
ponder the question as to whether their failure is not to be attributed
largely to their own lack of energy and determination.(117)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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